the delightful Miss K

the delightful Miss K

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Czech dreaming

There's this fantastic website called Hitchhikers.com and we used it to find ourselves a lift to Prague with a Dutch hiker intent on getting us all to Prague in under 3 hours, and thanks to Germany's autobahns, it was completely possible, no over-night bus for us this time thanks!
I found Prague or Praha to the locals as beautiful as I'd been told, as tacky as my Czechs relatives and old as the hills. Even 'new town's' from the 1700's or something.
Winks, who'd been living in the city for the past 8 months, felt the best way for us to start our Czechs section of our trip, was with this horrific example of carnivorous activity. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce... the Port Knuckle, along with its mates Big, big beer and slivovitz, the home-made paint-stripper they call liquor.

...the remaining carcass. How primitive of us.

It was in Prague that I found my 3 favourite pieces of graffiti on my entire trip, and they were all right next to each other on a otherwise blank wall. Language Warning... some people may find one of these offensive but I still thinks its brilliant enough to take that risk!
1: The Dude!

2: Envy

3: ...and for the rude one, but I really do love it!

Trying to imitate angry Czech beer drinkers

Right, here's a view of the city from the top of Prague Castle hill. very terracotta eh.

And here's a view from the top of another hill at a different time of the day!

Spent a bit of time at the Communist Museum and concluded: Starlin was a ... well I shouldn't' use that word in public, but insert dirtiest word you can think of here.
These posters were old Communist paraphernalia expressing the glorious merits of the regime. Ha!


And it was at the Museum, that I read about the peaceful-turned-violent student protests that took place throughout Soviet occupation. One was particularly tragic when a 20 year-old student Jan Palach lit himself on fire at the top of the Opera house steps (where all the major public events took place) and collapsed on the pavement, before dying 3 painful days later. He wrote a note before committing the deed begging for the end to Communism. He also asked that no other young people do what he was about to. Sadly, another young man lit himself alight a week later. I was so moved by the story, that I felt compelled to go and find the monument to him in the pavement where he fell...

An arcade sky-light

The perfect Czech sausage experience


St Ludmila: My Mum's name!


After a few days in town, we decided it was time to head someone where a bit quieter, friendlier and perhaps near a good body of water as the heat was really starting to get to us. This is pensive Winks as the train takes us away from the city she called home for 8 glorious months.


Chesty Kromlov
....or 'Chesty Bonds' as it became fondly known as.

Gorgeous town, fabulous river, ye old vibe and a really great night that marked our 2nd all-nighter for the trip, this time instead of being locked out, we partook in a lock-in with a bar owner and his head chef. Open bar anyone? Anyway, no photos of that fortunately, but here's some pretty ones of the Castle grounds:

This theatre seating revolves 180 degrese. That means, when they're showing Romeo and Juliette, they can face the royal setting to the left, when they're showing Midsummer Night's Dream, they can face the lush gardens to the right. I was impressed!


Some arches on the sweaty walk up to the castle. Note the smidgen of more modern architecture on the top of the arches. Every time a new King took over the castle, he would add something on, resulting in a series of buildings covering architecture spanning many eras and if I knew my architecture, I'd be able to quote actual styles here.... just imagine that I did ok.

Here's a view from the top of the castle hill:

Whilst exploring the grounds, we stumbled upon what turned out to be the most interesting, innovative gallery space I think I've ever seen. Great use for an old dungeon I say, and it was cool too, which was a bonus in the unrelenting heat of our European summer

2 hours sleep, 5 million degrees and 7 modes of transport to get to our next destination.... Krakow, Poland. Buckle up!

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